Erecting her silk tent with practiced hands, he said carelessly:
"In case you cared to send any word to the yacht——"
"Did I say that I came from the yacht?" she asked; and her straight eyebrows bent a trifle inward.
"Didn't you?"
"Will you promise me something, Mr. Jones?"
The things he was prepared to promise her choked him for a second, but when he regained control of his vocal powers he said, very pleasantly, that he would gladly promise her anything.
"Then don't ask me where I came from. Let me stay three days. Then I'll go very quietly away, and never trouble you again. Is it a promise?"
"Yes," he said, not looking at her. His face[41] had become very serious; she noticed it—and how well his head was set on his shoulders, and how his clipped hair was burned to the color of crisp hay.
"You were Harvard, of course," she said, unthinkingly.
"Yes." He mentioned the year.